Daily Archives: February 8, 2026

The Vet

The New American Digest Posted on by

written by ghostsniper; published by Gerard Dec 27, 2020

“Take away a man’s livelihood and he starts to die.”

I saw Jim back in June and he was walking with a cane and had lost considerable weight. His speech was soft but clear and he had nothing but good words to say, as always. I have known Jim for 15 years.

In 1966 Jim Brester graduated from college and set up his own veterinarian office over here on 135 in Bean Blossom, about 1.5 miles from our house. We had 2 dogs and I met Jim shortly after we moved here. People came from hundreds of miles around for Jim’s vet service and the parking lot at his place was always slammed hard. There was always a several hour wait to get in. They didn’t take appointments.

I took both dogs to Brester’s to get full examinations and shots, total cost was $40. Both dogs.

Once, one of our mutt’s had a problem, don’t remember what right now, but after I put her up on the table Jim stood in front of her, outstretched hand on top of her head and the other on her side and stroked her gently. Then he bent down to her level and looked in her eyes.

Before my very eyes, I saw a Vulcan mind-meld occur. As he stared in Lady’s eyes his head turned slightly to the side, like he was reading an unheard message from her. Then he stood upright, grabbed a glass syringe from the cabinet and triple loaded it with some chemicals, bunched up the skin on her shoulders, and gave her the shot.

I asked him what was wrong and he said she had an ear infection. Then he grabbed a cloth, applied a solution, and deeply cleaned her ears out which were full of brownish material. In a few days, Lady was her same ol’ self and Brester had charged $15 for that service.

5 years ago an out of state woman wasn’t happy with the primitive service she received at Jim Brester’s place and lodged a complaint with the state. In hours, through social media, hundreds of people jumped to Doctor Brester’s defense. The state dismissed the complaint.

A year later someone else filed a complaint so the state inspected his place and decided it was not up to par with where it needed to be. They didn’t have a $500k x-ray machine, etc. To do all the things the state demanded meant Brester’s place would never again be his dream.

See, Jim Brester got up early every morning and made the rounds out through the many farms in the area, checking in on sick cows, pregnant horses, immunizing every kind of farm animal and people’s pets. He also supervised all the animals at the 4H clubs in the area as well as judged animals at the county fair for the past 40 years. The care of animals was the reason Jim Brester got up every morning.

Unwilling to “update” his made-from-scratch business to be something he didn’t want or understand, 78-year-old Jim shut it down. Within a month a chain vet company bought the place, filled it with airheads in white coats, and quadrupled the prices and everybody had to have an appointment. I took my mutt Shannon there last year and a basic exam and a rabies shot cost $80.

When I talked to Jim this past summer the shine was gone from his eyes. He still spoke kindly like always but I could tell things were different now. They took away his reason for living and when you stop living you start dying.

— ghostsniper December 24, 2020, 12:40 PM

Dr Brester died 2 days before I wrote this.

Original article here:
https://bcdemocrat dot com/2020/12/23/goodbye-doc-well-known-veterinarian-passes/

Jim-Brester
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Abandoned

The New American Digest Posted on by

This may be the last major stamp mill built in Nevada.

Out in the middle of once-was-somewhere Nevada, sits this relatively intact silver stamp mill. Not as unknown as it used to be, this mill was so far off the beaten path that much of it and the surrounding buildings still exist even though it is not part of a historical site or park. Hoping to maintain what little can be hidden, I'll not reveal its name or location though it wouldn't be hard to find information. Most of the machinery was removed when the mill shut down.

Although the Comstock Lode/Virginia City is well known as a major silver-producing area, the richest silver veins were found in the center of the state. The greatest "rushes" to the area occurred in the late 1860s/early 1870s but extraction methods were relatively inefficient.

Although this area had been "settled" in 1865, the majority of mines had played out quickly and the original mills in the region shut down by 1892 and the equipment moved elsewhere. However, after the Tonopah discoveries in 1901, mining companies using more modern techniques started to develop the older areas intending to seek deposits over-looked or deemed too difficult by the earlier efforts.

At this site, the mines were re-opened in the 1920s but the area was not suitable for building a mill. Transportation issues being what they were, it was more effective to mill the ore on-site and transport the semi-processed ore. A more suitable mill location was selected - about 2 miles distant from the mine - and this mill with associated structures was built. The ore was transported from the mine by an aerial tramway. It turned out the remaining ore in the reopened mines was not as rich as hoped, processing the ore proved more difficult than expected, and silver prices were falling; the re-opened mines and mill operated less than one year.

The tramlines are still in place as is the last tram bucket of ore, hanging in the wind, waiting for time (or vandals) to bring it back to earth.

It's on my list as a possible destination for this year's road trip.

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